


A Bridge of Silver Wings

by aleksrothis



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Gender or Sex Swap, Third Age, Wildly AU, Work In Progress, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-09 00:44:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4327296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aleksrothis/pseuds/aleksrothis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the first of several crazy AUs that wouldn't let me not write them</p>
<p>An Exile is Reborn into Third Age Imladris, causing no end of confusion for Elrond and Glorfindel and showing that the truth is not always what is told.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Bridge of Silver Wings

Chapter 1 - Elrond

It had been a long day of negotiations and even the music in the Hall of Fire had not relaxed Elrond as usual. Something pressed on his mind, not quite foresight but a sense of omen. Although he knew the borders of Imladris were well defended, he could not suppress the urge to wander the halls, searching for what was out of place.

  
The sound of a child’s cry broke the silence of the Last Homely House. Elrond hesitated at the noise; surely he had not heard a child but rather a fox or an owl’s call. The only children in Imladris for many centuries had been the heirs of the Dunedain and there were none present at this time. Had a traveller arrived without his notice? But no, his feet had lead him to the family wing where no outsider should be. He thought through his small household but there were no women in their child-bearing years living in this wing. His mind flashed briefly to Arwen but he could sense her safely distant in Lothlorien with her grandparents. So how had a child come to be here?

  
His feet led his towards the sound, even as his mind wandered, until he stood before the door to the nursery, empty for years since Arwen was grown. The cries were clearly coming from within. Steeling himself against whatever he should find, Elrond pushed the door open, ready to challenge whoever had dared to impose here. And was still left shocked as he found the room empty but for a wicker basket, which by the sounds still coming from it, contained the child. Unable to leave a child to suffer, however unexpected their presence, Elrond crossed the room to the basket, still alert for any danger, and received a second surprise at the child's appearance.

  
Although they, or she, for he thought it was a girl child, was clearly elven there was something strange about her skin and hair, which were pale as alabaster, not merely silver as some of the Teleri, but as though drained of colour. Even as a healer, he had never seen such coloration in an elf though, as he pulled himself together, he realised he had heard of such a thing in animals: crows born white, the legendary white stag.

  
Reaching to pick the crying child up, he met her eyes and received yet another second shock as they glowed with an inner light. Lachenn, he thought, flame-eyed, as his Sindar ancestors had called the arriving Noldor, and on that thought followed the realisation of what that meant.

  
Only those who had seen the light of the Trees in the Blessed Land had such eyes. So to find them in a child meant they must be a reborn elf. But why should any such child be brought to Imladris? He had never heard of any reborn elf coming to Endor save Glorfindel, who had returned as an adult. Were there not families enough in Aman to welcome her?

  
Unsure he or his household were supposed to do with the child, Elrond therefore called the only person he could think of with any expertise in this area; he called Glorfindel. Then, refusing to allow his fears to stop him offering comfort to a child in need, he picked her up, rocking her in his arms as he had his own children.  
There must have been a degree of panic in his mental voice since the reborn Eldar arrived moments later at a run, having not even bothered to change out of his nightrobes. In other circumstances, Elrond might have been amused but now he was only too relieved to see his friend. He watched the warrior take in the situation in an instant and relax when he realised there was no instant danger.

  
"Are you so out of practice at holding a child, you must call me to help, old friend?" Glorfindel teased, but Elrond could tell he was both relieved to find no obvious trouble and confused by the summons.

  
Elrond smiled ruefully. "It is about the child I called you, but not for your babysitting skills. I heard crying and came here to find her alone."

  
"You think she had been abandoned?" There was a hint of anger in the balrog slayer's tone - elves loved children and the thought of one being left to cry in an empty room was anathema. "I can arrange for a patrol to search the grounds immediately. How old is the child? Do you think the mother will need assistance?"

  
Elrond took a deep breath, not sure if he feared more that Glorfindel would know what to do or that he wouldn't. "She is no newborn. An elven child, but I have never seen an elf like her before. I think she is reborn."

  
Glorfindel finally took a good look at the child and Elrond thought he saw a flicker of recognition pass across his face before his expression went blank. "I have," he said, with a note like sadness in his tone "but this cannot be her." He shook his head. "What makes you think she is reborn?"

  
"Her eyes." Elrond held the now quiet child up so Glorfindel could see her face clearly and could tell their eyes had met.

  
"Ai, Elbereth," the blond Eldar whispered.

  
"Indeed," said Elrond drily. "You say you have seen one who looked like her before? Tell me, who was she?"

  
His friend shook his head. "If I am right, she is... my cousin, but I can hardly believe it."

  
"Why else would she be reborn here in Endor? You must be her nearest living kinsman."

  
"Not so, her mother lives yet in Aman, even if none other of her family do. But she was not the only one of her siblings to die and there are reasons she might not be welcomed by her kin."

  
"Who would not rejoice at their daughter or sister being returning to them?" Elrond held the child close to him, thinking of his own family.

  
An expression of pain passed across Glorfindel's face. "What welcome is there in Aman for a kinslayer?"

  
Elrond felt a flicker of anger. "What welcome should there be here? My grandparents were killed in Doriath. I saw the devastation at the Havens."

  
Glorfindel met his gaze defiantly. "Yet have I not heard you refer to Maedhros and Maglor as being like parents to you? And you too are of the House of Finwe."

  
As Elrond recognised the truth in that, he realised he had tightened his grip on the child in his arms and forced himself to relax. Whatever she had done, that she had been reborn spoke of repenting and forgivenes and besides, he could not hurt a child. Hard to imagine this innocent babe as a kinslayer but then he oft had trouble thinking of Maedhros and Maglor as such and they had been bathed in blood when he first saw them. He also recognised the deflection in his friend's comment.

  
"So I am to assume," he asked, in lieu of all the other questions he couldn't voice, "that if she is your cousin, she is my kin also?"

  
Glorfindel laughed lightly. "I fear I have already said too much. I believe, if she is who I suspect, she has been sent her to grow in greater anonymity than she would get in Aman. Yet I have never heard of such a thing happening before."

  
"Well, what is to be done with her? What would be done in Aman?" Glorfindel had spoken of other reborn elves but said they usually lived with the returned exiles on Tol Eressea.

  
"Usually a family is given a season or so warning that one of their kin will be reborn and then the child would be brought to them by one of Namo's Maia servants." He paused. "I have had dreams of her, of several of my kin, in recent months but did not think anything of it. Perhaps that was all the warning I could be given so far away."

  
"So will you raise her?" he asked.

  
"I?" Glorfindel looked shocked at the suggestion. "I have duties to uphold and no wife or household beyond yours. Indeed, she was left here in your children's nursery - perhaps it is intended for you to raise her."

  
"And what of my duties?" Elrond objected. "My child raising years are over and none of my children yet have families."

  
"Then you will need to find her a trusted foster family here in Imladris." Glorfindel had a look on his face which told Elrond he would not be swayed on this.

  
Elrond rocked the child in his arms as he thought through his household. Whoever took in this child would need to be of Noldorin blood - he would not have her raised to deny her heritage. There were none besides himself and Glorfindel of the House of Finwe but there were those of other Noldor noble houses. Or perhaps it would be better to find an ordinary family to prevent any arguments once she was fully grown and her memories restored.

  
"Should they not be told who she is?" For a moment, Elrond feared it would be only him Glorfindel wished to keep ignorant of the child's identity and wondered at its meaning. Who could she be? There were not many women of the Noldor who had made the journey to Endor, yet alone been involved in the kinslayings.

  
But he was relieved by the older elf's response. "They will need to know she is reborn but I think it would do more harm than good to name her to any. Old feuds run deep. They should know she is my kin, so they can come to me at need, but no more."

  
"And others?" Knowing they had a reborn elfling in the household, how could any help but treat her differently?

  
"Others only need be told she is a foundling," Glorfindel said. "I will take her away with me tonight and return in a day or so saying I found her just beyond the borders."

  
Elrond nodded, it was a good to keep her arrival secret, the only real way, and some would still wonder at Glorfindel's sudden departure and return, especially if any had seen him answer Elrond's summons tonight. And there were other complications; even as one problem was resolved, others came to mind. "If you will not give any her true name, what is she to be called?" He watched Glorfindel's brow furrow in thought.

  
"Any name I could give you would be too revealing," he said. "I will choose something new for her if you wish, or her foster parents can."

"Isn't that unfair?" Elrond asked.

"Perhaps, but it is not uncommon either." Glorfindel shrugged. "Yes, there are some parents who name their children after the heroes of the past but her real name certainly would draw attention. Still even in Aman, the reborn may something be given a new name, to protect them from finding out about their past life too soon or sometimes when the family are uncertain which of their children has been reborn at this time."

  
Elrond shuddered, as a father, he couldn't imagine the pain of waiting for any of his children to be reborn, yet alone more than one of them. "Won't you tell me something about her," he asked, "so I can decide who best to foster her with?"

  
Glorfindel smiled at him. "Always looking for loopholes," he said but his tone was gentle and his eyes turned distant as though he were looking back into the past. "She was a strong woman, she had to be in her family. She know a lot of animal lore, could call any bird down to her hand, and was wise in herb lore too."

  
"A noble lady?" Elrond asked, thinking of the difference between Arwen's gentle but determined nature and her grandmother's stubbornness. Some still called Galadriel 'kinslayer', when they thought her unaware and this girl child would have surely been one of her generation if not her own house.

  
"Not in the way you are thinking. She loved the outdoors, the hunt. She would ride out for hours sometimes, just for the joy of it. But in another sense, too noble, sometimes. She suffered at the hands of her kin, who sought to control her."

  
Could he mean what Elrond thought he was implying? He wasn't certain if Glorfindel was so far lost in his memories he didn't realise what a strong hint he had given or if this was the only way he felt able to say. Surely, he must be referring to Aredhel - she had been known as Ar-Feiniel, the White Lady of the Noldor, which must have been a reference to her strange colouration. But then again he had seen paintings of her with dark hair, or had that just been an assumption of the artist who had never seen her? "Her kin? Her father, brothers?" Could he persuade Glorfindel to say more.

  
"And also her husband. She married but not for love. She sacrificed herself for her son and, though he was not ungrateful, still he died in pain and betrayal for such was the Doom of the Noldor."

  
And another clue, did Glorfindel even realise what he was saying? He looked lost in the past. Yet there was the reference to her husband and son - surely he meant Eol the Dark Elf and Maeglin the Traitor. Elrond thought again of his earlier denial that any elf would harm a child; Eol had tried to murder his own son and Maeglin had later tried to kill Earendil, Elrond's own grandfather. If she was Aredhel, who was to say someone might not hold her son's actions against her. Or her known friendship with the sons of Feanor, especially Celegorm, whose cruel servants it was said had led the young sons of Dior, who would have been Elrond's uncles, into the woods to die.

  
Glorfindel seemed to come back to the present and shook off the sense of history which had come over him. He reached out to Elrond. "Let me take the child. If I am to leave with her tonight, I need to go soon."

  
Elrond passed her into Glorfindel's arms - he might have thought the warrior would be uncomfortable or look ill at ease holding a child but he looked natural. With her pale curls and his blond locks flowing freely they truly looked like kin. "You will need food for both of you for the journey," he said. "Though I confess I am not sure what she will need."

  
"As you said, she is not a newborn," Glorfindel replied. "Any soft foods should be fine for her and I will just take some lembas for myself. I cannot take much if I am to leave without drawing attention to us."

  
"You will need other supplies for her too," Elrond pointed out, "even if you are only going to be a day or two."

  
Glorfindel nodded. "And most of it can be found in this room. I believe Lord Namo choose this location deliberately."

  
Elrond sighed. "It would seem so, though I still do not understand why." He crossed the room to the linen cupboard.

  
"Everything is done for a reason," Glorfindel said. "Though I agree Lord Namo's are harder to fathom than others."

  
Elrond had to laugh at that, as he sorted bedding, clean cloths and girl's clothes out of the cupboard, remembering fondly when Arwen was still small enough for them.

  
Glorfindel held up a hand. "I cannot take all this. I need a way to carry her safely on horseback, a change of clothing and some cloths."

  
"I think you underestimate how much mess small children make," Elrond said. "Trust me on the amount you will need." Still he limited his packing to these items.

  
"Thank you my friend, now I must go - I need to return to my own rooms to change and want to have left before dawn."

  
Elrond nodded understandingly. "Then go with my blessing."

  
"Thank you." Glorfindel clasped his hand and left.

  
Elrond sorted a few more things out for when they returned, still thinking over the best family to take her. He thought he had a good idea but would want to sound them out about it first. Still he wished Glorfindel could have told him more about her and wondered what held his tongue. Was it really not done to reveal a Reborn's identity, even when it was apparently as obvious as Glorfindel had suggested or was it just for her he kept the secret?

  
Could she actually be Aredhel, and if not, who else Glorfindel might count as kin? He only know the older elf was related to the House of Finwe on his mother's side, since Maedhros and Maglor had called him kin, but neither they nor Glorfindel ever really spoken of his father, only by implication that he was not of the Noldor. And from all the tales it had only really been the Noldorin exiles involved in the kinslaying, assuming in was Alqualonde he referred to.

  
As Elrond finished and returned to his own rooms, he had another thought - was this child a special instance or would there be more Reborn in Endor?

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from a rather beautiful quote:
> 
> “A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmare  
> to the jeweled vision of a life started anew.”  
> ― Aberjhani, Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry


End file.
